Comyns Beaumont

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William Comyns Beaumont (1873–1955), also known as Comyns Beaumont, was a British journalist, writer, lecturer and editor. He worked for the Daily Mail, became editor of the Bystander in 1903, and later edited The Graphic in 1932. His unusual ideas about astronomy and history influenced later thinkers, including Immanuel Velikovsky. He was the paternal uncle of Muriel Beaumont, the mother of writers Angela du Maurier and Daphne du Maurier, and painter Jeanne du Maurier.

Beaumont believed in giants from British folklore and thought other mythical creatures might be real. In a series of books published from 1946 to 1949, he made many extraordinary claims: Jesus was crucified near Edinburgh, Satan was a comet that caused Noah’s Flood, the ancient Egyptians were Irish, Hell was in western Scotland, Achilles spent his childhood on the Isle of Skye, Galilee was Wales, and Athens was Bath, England. He also suggested Atlantis might be Britain and supported the Shakespeare authorship question, arguing that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays.